A couple of weekends ago I played both Saturday and Sunday. It was the tail end of my kids’ spring breaks, and I wanted to get in as much golf as possible. I played really well on Saturday, shooting an 82 for my second lowest differential (15.4) since starting to play alternate golf. I wasn’t planning on playing Sunday, but I got a text from some new golf friends to join them on Sunday. I was a bit tired but otherwise feeling good, so I decided to take them up on the offer. I shot an 84 for a differential of 17.3, which was my fourth lowest round (including the round the day before).
Given how early it is in the season, I’m extremely happy with how well I played and scored. However, I think I overdid it.
On Saturday, a few groups had just teed off when I arrived, so the pro suggested I skip a few holes. I started on the fourth hole, which is one of the most difficult holes on the course for me. Looking back through my rounds, I would guess that my scoring average is close to double bogey. On paper, the fourth hole shouldn’t be that difficult. It’s listed as the second longest par four on the course, but it’s still only 377 from the white tees and is pretty much dead straight. The tee shot plays over the valley that runs through the course, then continues uphill to the green, so the approach shot requires an extra club or two. I would guess that it plays closer to 400 yards, but it still shouldn’t be too hard to make a bogey.
I hit a mediocre righty drive that left me partially blocked out from hitting the green. However, I was still able to hit a good punch with my lefty hybrid just short of the green. I then hit an amazing righty chip with my 8-iron to tap in range and made par. This sort of thing happened on several holes – i.e. decent shots that got me close to the green, followed by really good chips that led to a one putt. On four holes this led to par, and on another it allowed me to save a bogey.
I didn’t three putt all day, so I made par on all six holes where I hit the greens in regulation. There were another four holes where I made some sort of physical mistake that led to me taking an extra stroke to get onto the green, but still two putted to make bogey. Finally, I had three double-bogeys. One was a par 3 where I pulled my lefty iron just right of the green, but it ran down a cart path and just kept going. It was a mediocre shot that happened to lead to a very bad outcome.
The next two were classic cases of making two mistakes that both led to losing a stroke. On the first one I topped my righty drive, but because the hole played across the valley it still rolled all the way to the bottom. From there I was able to get a lefty 6 iron just short of the green, but then I duffed a righty pitch shot. I then hit a decent lefty chip and two putted. I made my last double on the very next hole, which makes about a 90 degree dogleg to the right. I hit a decent lefty hybrid off the tee, which didn’t go quite far enough to give me a look at the green. I tried to cut a righty hybrid around the corner and cut it too close, clipping a tree for mistake number one. That mistake was as much mental as it was physical. This left me with a 50 yard lefty sand wedge, which I chunked for mistake number two. I hit a decent righty sand wedge on the green and two putted for my double bogey.
One thing I am proud of for this round is that I only really made the one mental error. That was on the last hole I just described where I was overly aggressive trying to cut the hybrid around the corner. If I get into a similar position off the tee on that hole again, I will play a much more conservative second shot.
Sunday’s round was somewhat similar statistically. Again, I had no three putts. The change to my practice putting strokes where I start each one from a dead stop is clearly helping me with my speed. I think I can safely declare this to be a “breakthrough”.
On four holes I chipped close enough to one putt to save par. I had one other one putt, but on that hole it was for birdie on a par 5. I hit a good righty drive, a good lefty hybrid, and a perfect righty pitching wedge close to the hole to setup the birdie putt. I only hit three greens in regulation this time, leading to easy pars. This round had seven bogeys, which were all pretty standard – i.e. decent shots getting me on the green in one over regulation, followed by two putts. I had two doubles, and a triple. Similar to the previous round, these were the result of compounding mistakes. However, it felt like I mostly made physical mistakes as opposed to mental mistakes, which I consider to be a success.
The real problem though is that my back was very tight and sore the following week. I was feeling it mostly in my left lower back, whereas up to this point most of the lower back pain that I have had has been in the lower right side. I can think of one right handed drive on one of my last holes on Sunday where I probably went after the ball a little bit too hard. Either way, it is a bit demoralizing to make a regression in the condition of my back. After a week of diligently doing my back exercises things have improved quite a bit, but it is a reminder that I really need to make an extra effort to not over-swing.
I was able to get in one of my rare range sessions this past weekend, and I focused exclusively on making a smooth and controlled swing. After warming up with a bunch of wedges, I actually hit nothing but drivers. It was very cold and windy, so it wasn’t really possible for me to get a sense of how far I was hitting it compared to “normal”. However there is no doubt that it was probably the most consistent range session that I can remember. Even if I gave up some distance, which I’m not at all sure was the case, the lack of the occasional bad drive almost certainly brought up my average driving distance.
Despite having had a good range session, it is a reminder of the challenges I face in trying to really improve game, particularly with regards to the full swing. Putting aside the limited amount of practice time that I have, I still need to be cognizant of how many swings I make. This, combined with the fact that I need to make half of these swings from each side, reduces the amount of practice that I get effectively by half. I don’t intend to sound like I am whining – I am still extremely grateful to be able to play at all.
But it is also a reminder that I need to focus as much as possible on process oriented goals as opposed to performance oriented goals, as to a large extent, there is only so much I work I can put in on my full swing. The one thing that I can always control is my mental game. It is entirely within my power to always choose the right shot. The gray area is trying to figure out how much of an influence the mental side of things has on the execution of particular shots. It is one thing to leave a pitch shot short because I misjudge how much effort I needed to put into the swing, and an entirely different thing to leave a pitch shot short because I was not committed to the shot and therefore did not make a good effort.
As a result of these two rounds, my handicap index is now down to a 17.1, which is the lowest it has been since I started playing alternate golf. The next three scores that will drop off are not currently counted toward my handicap. Then the score with the highest differential that counts will come off (19.2) before four more scores that currently don’t count. Hopefully I can continue the steady play and keep nudging the handicap down.
Alternate Golf 